Change in On-Campus Television Programming

When students at St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) return to campus from spring break, they will be met with a different lineup of television channels than they had when they left.

According to Raven Glidden, the media infrastructure and technology specialist at SMCM, students living on campus at SMCM who have their television sets hooked up to the SMCM Media Center’s television service via the coaxial ports in their residences will find an additional six channels available to them. While the total number of channels is increasing, some other channels are being dropped.

“I suggested the new changes based on feedback I’ve received over the past several years,” Glidden told The Point News via email, “[I] sent that to SGA for confirmation.” The SGA confirmation came in the form of a vote in early February.

In addition, TVs hooked into the system will soon be provided with HBO, HBO2, Cinemax and 5StarMax. As HBO and Cinemax subscribers, the College will be able to provide HBO Go and Max Go.

“Our service provider offered a free upgrade a year early,” Glidden explained, “the features and lineup are obviously better for us and the upgraded headend will make their maintenance obligations much easier (and cheaper) to fulfill.”

These upgrades are “regular and rare,” Glidden says, they happen “every five years or so.” SMCM went through this upgrade most recently in June of 2014.